| July 25
- July 25, 2010
The prophet Ezekiel had something in common with his colleague Samuel: they both lived in a transition time. Samuel led the Israelites as they changed from a nomadic people led by charismatic judges, to a monarchy. Against God’s wishes, they wanted a king like their neighbors. And to their detriment got one. Ezekiel led God’s people in a second-hinge period. It fell to him to experience the shipwreck that the previous prophets saw coming. He was among the first to be deported by the Babylonians and lived out his days in Mesopotamia, trying to make sense of this devastating event. “Concentration camps” are not an easy place to speak about God.
The people were uprooted, beaten-down, and humiliated. Religiously they were shattered because as they saw it, so was God. It’s hard enough to take when friends and institutions collapse from under you, but when God goes reeling, it’s especially discouraging. But that was the average Israelite refugee outlook in the 6th century BC. The fall of Jerusalem and the extradition into Babylon were like a bottomless pit to the Jews. But God found his voice, even in exile. That was Ezekiel’s calling.
Times of change lead to misunderstanding and false conclusions. So God needed someone to explain why this had happened to Israel and what it held for the future. Because he was effective in his ministry of interpretaion, Ezekiel saved Israel’s soul from what might’ve been their total disintegration. There’s always plenty of interpreters around. I guess it depends on which one you listen to; or whether you do your own interpreting. But the most important job of an interpreter is to articulate the true image of God, when that image is being distorted. That was Jesus’ chief role too. He came to “show us God.” “Show us God,” said Phillip, “and we’ll be satisfied.”
As we see in the media every day, interpreters on all sides of the spectrum are often blinded by their prejudices, and only make things worse. So Jesus advised us to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” His interpretation of God was so realistic, we’re still trying to catch up with it. Likewise Ezekiel allowed-as-how the disappointment the exiles were feeling toward God, was because he let them down by not protecting them. But Ezekiel re-interpreted that by pointing to reality: their expatriation was of their own making.
How often disillusionment is the child of illusion. That’s why we have interpreters. Many wrong conclusions are the result of bad ideas and unrealistic assumptions. This was the basis for Ezekiel’s diagnosis of Israel’s religious situation: they asked for it. The only thing worse than bad ideas is a lot of them. Israel had several that landed them where they were. Foremost is their concept of localizing God to “the promised land.” The prophets saw clearly that God can’t be confined to any one locality. He didn’t belong only to Israel; or live at the temple in Jerusalem; he was a universal God.
Grace can be had in the wilderness, even in Babylonian captivity. A little history would’ve helped. They forgot Father Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, and Moses was rescued from the bulrushes of the Nile, down in Egypt. They forgot to remember how they got to where they were and wound up thinking God was restricted to Palestine.
Another common misnomer is that God would protect the holy city in the holy land, no matter what. The prophets preached Israel was blessed by God to be a blessing to others, but it fell on deaf ears. Israel instead had become like a spoiled kid, who believed God had no higher goal than to cater to his every whim. A pampered child doesn’t bother with trying to understand reality as it is, if he can just “wish it so,” then it ought to happen. But all that happens is he goes on being a perpetual infant, with somebody else having to keep cleaning up the messes he makes of his life; an everybody else’s around him. Such a juvenile idea does not represent health but regression. No wonder God used the exile to teach them a hard lesson! They’d gotten so separated from their roots, it’s understandable how the fall of Jerusalem would spiritually demolish them. What else could it mean given their misinformed ideas? God can’t cut the mustard anymore? Was he asleep on the job? Was his moron cousin running the show? Else why didn’t God protect them? It sure looked to them like the pagan god, Marduke was more powerful.
This interpretation of their immigration status was dominant, until Ezekiel spoke up. His picture was quite different. He corrected their limited vision and erroneous theologies, by pointing out they started with the wrong premise: God can’t be localized or confined to any region or land. He’s Lord of all history, and not just a mindless defender of his own territory.
Because God is this way, his people were to be “a light to the nations.” But Israel balked at cooperating with God to shine his light outwardly on others. Instead she turned inward, and enriched herself and her people and her place. That’s not what God had in mind when he liberated them at the Exodus. And this said Ezekiel, is why they were where they were. The fault was Israel’s not God’s; and her rebellion against her true identity.
Ezekiel preached that God was the instigator of the exile, not a victim of it. The national catastrophe wasn’t something done to God by Nebuchadnezzar; it was done by God to discipline his wayward people, and call them back to claim their true calling. For 22 years he hammered away at this perspective that he’d been given through visions. “This is what our God is really like. He has not let us down; we have let him down.” Isn’t that how it always is? God is not weak in times of calamity, but he’s sometimes behind them to wake us up! When you’re too far gone, it often comes to that. So give up your illusionary ideas about God! God is everywhere, even here in exile with us.
That folks, was revolutionary, as was Jesus. In fact, it appears that Jesus got some of his ideas from Ezekiel the prophet. It’s common in religious circles: when humans, with the gods we’ve made, come face to face with the God who made us. And it goes on every moment in our lives, as we have to keep correcting our image by the One in whose image we’re made. That’s why we come to church; to help us stay on track. How important is it to have interpreters? I doubt Israel could’ve survived the exile had not Ezekiel helped them clarify their theology. He put the blame where it belonged - on their illusions, not God’s weakness and called them back to reality.
The other contribution Ezekiel gave to his people was the gift of hope in a hopeless time. They expected God to protect Jerusalem and when he didn’t, not only his image but the shape of the future was called into question. And Ezekiel was on-the-spot to offer a word of clarification. He set before his despondent people, a realistic hope; not an easy hope, but one born of mercy, rooted in God not forsaking them, even though it looked pretty bad at the time.
Ezekiel utilized several images to spread encouragement to the Hebrew exiles. The first was his “valley of the dry bones.” (37) It could be that he saw a real place like this on his trip into exile. It is a graphic image of decaying desolation and it must’ve really captured how they felt. But in a vision, God had Ezekiel speak to the bones. When he did, flesh and sinew returned and they came back to life again. He gave to those with only a past something to look forward to. God can give life to people who’ve squandered it and abused it. That’s good theology.
Death is the ultimate limitation, and if God can revive bleached bones, even this boundary, worse than exile has been breached. To Ezekiel, despair is presumptuous, who knows the future? The present may appear to be bleak, but God knows his way out of the grave! How about that for an Easter interpretation in the Old Testament? The exile is not final. God has the last word; and that word is grace and trusting that God can make dead things come back to life again is the basis of our faith.
Another vision takes place at the mouth of a river under the altar of a new temple, to be rebuilt when the exile was over. (47) The prophet watched the river flow eastward through the desert, down to the Dead Sea and made even that sterile body of water come alive with fish and plants. Those of us who’ve floated in the saline waters, understand what a graphic promise this is. Nothing lives there; just rocks and sand and salt and boiling sun. But again, God can give life to the natural order, like the resurrection of the dry bones was to humans. It represents the coming of vitality to places of deadness, including faraway exile.
The tenderest image is Ezekiel’s vision of God himself becoming Israel’s Shepherd, and seeking out those who’ve strayed away and gotten themselves lost. It’s not just that they were bad, but worse: they were lost. The prophet boldly condemned the leaders who should’ve shepherded the people more faithfully, but didn’t care enough to do it. But the time will come when God himself will be their Shepherd! This of course, is the image Jesus chose for himself in John’s Gospel. But think of what it must’ve meant to the exiles to hear that they were not abandoned to their captors, but God himself will someday be their Savior, once they learned their lesson real good.
I share these stories to each of us who longs to hear a good word from the Lord when we feel beaten-down by life, that God will “never leave us or forsake us,” like a “Good Shepherd, who “leaves behind the ninety and nine to, seek one lost sheep.” That’s why we don’t find God. God finds us. In the midst of the mess they’d made of their national and religious life the prophet wisely reminded them that God is able to work with sinners and redeem their fallenness. I thank God for a vision of God who is merciful and mighty. How can we not hope even in our time, when all creation is finally held in the tender embrace of such a loving Shepherd?
Providence Prayers: (7/25/10)
Most of all for the faith that lights our path; for whatever is in us that makes us call Thee "Father." And for comforting those who mourn, for healing the afflicted, delivering the captives and bringing hope to those in despair. For bending low to meet our deepest needs. We praise Thee for sending us Jesus. And his encouraging Spirit, who continues to guide us and inspire us to greater service. Renew our spiritual core in this worship. Keep us faithful in the study of the scriptures, disciplined in prayer, courageous in mission. The prophets taught us to show mercy and seek justice. We thank Thee for this church, which sees its calling, “To let righteousness flow down like a mighty stream,” and make the love of Jesus felt in this community and out into the larger world.
Come now upon this congregation, still our fears, lighten our pain, enliven our worship, prompt our faithfulness, strengthen our ministries, rain upon the whole earth joy and peace. Where there is sickness, give healing. Where there is grief, grant encouragement. Where there is suffering, provide hope. As we follow Christ into this new week, make us more Christlike. Guide by Thy light, the nations of this earth, that the whole world may know our Lord Christ, and keep us alert to the duties of our callings, that we may sleep in thy peace and wake in thy glory, through Christ our Lord. Amen. |
